Buchanan: Jail Those Who Stay Homeless

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan said Monday that people who persist in being homeless should be locked up.

``I don`t think we should have to have them wandering the streets frightening women and people,`` Buchanan, a former newspaper columnist and television commentator, told a group of reporters.

``I would put them up for the night and if they kept doing it I would pick them up for vagrancy and lock `em up.``

Buchanan, who is mounting a conservative challenge to President Bush for the GOP presidential nomination, said he doesn`t believe the homeless problem is the president`s responsibility.

``I think first it`s primarily a local problem,`` Buchanan said. ``I don`t think the homeless in Santa Monica are the responsibility of George Bush or Ronald Reagan. . . .

``I`ll be honest, in places like New York a lot of these homeless folks are stabbing people to death. I think they should be taken off the streets, to be honest. I don`t think they should be wandering around the streets.``

Buchanan said he agreed with former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who at one time ordered the police to pick up homeless people in freezing weather.

On the question of illegal immigration, Buchanan said he would build a trench and fence the length of the U.S.-Mexico border and relocate American military bases to the border to halt the flow of illegal aliens.

``In the Southwest they are rolling across (the border),`` Buchanan said. ``The border guards get out of the way because they come across in trucks. You can stop that. Look, they all come across in an area of 200 miles. For less than $1 billion, put a depressed area in there and a fence and you can stop 90 percent of it.``

Buchanan, who called his plan ``the Buchanan fence,`` also said he would

``beef up`` the U.S. border patrol and consider having National Guard troops ``do their summer duty along there.``

``Some of them (border patrol guards) are scared for their lives,``

Buchanan said. ``Look, you can`t stop illegal immigration but I think you

(can) cut out huge herds of it coming across, 1 to 3 million a year.``

Buchanan also took aim at ``multiculturalism,`` which he suggested is combining with illegal immigration to undermine the basic fabric of American society.

``We`re getting record amounts of immigration at the same time these institutions are breaking down-the family, the church, the schools and all the rest-and we have to address it,`` Buchanan said.

``You see little manifestations of it. We had the 500th anniversary of Columbus and that was a time for trashing Columbus. Custer`s name goes off the national battlefield. In the South, the Confederate flag has got to be taken down. . . .

``All these things that, if you will, are an assault on American culture at the same time you have masses of immigration coming in and you are deciding the character of your nation in year 2025.``